Somewhere in Pakistan, a top terrorist is being held. He’s wanted by the U.S., Indonesia and Australia. The U.S. has even offered $1 million for information leading to his capture. But despite him being in our “ally’s” custody, the U.S. has made no moves to access him.
Umar Patek is an Indonesian behind the 2002 Bali bombings. He was taken into custody by Pakistani authorities in January, arrested in — wait for this — Abbottabad, Pakistan, site of bin Laden’s compound. Likely just dropped in for the mountain views…
Patek has been described as an intelligence “gold mine” because of his doings with al-Qaeda-linked groups in Southeast Asia. Did Patek meet bin Laden in Abbottabad and what did they discuss? Targets, operations, etc? Seems like we’d have a few questions to ask. But we’re not asking them.
The Obama administration has “made no move to interrogate or seek custody” of Patek, reports the Los Angeles Times. Why not? “The CIA is out of the detention and interrogation business,” says an official. Outside of Afghanistan and Iraq there have been no reported U.S. detentions of high-value terrorists under President Obama. Why not? Remember, immediately upon entering office, President Obama ended the CIA’s high-value interrogation program.
On Wednesday, at my terrorism subcommittee’s hearing on al-Qaeda, I asked a top terrorism expert about Patek. The info Patek has is “enormously important, not just in a tactical sense of killing and capturing other terrorists, but also building up the strategic picture of how these groups operate so we can prevent their regeneration.”
People can honestly disagree over the best interrogation techniques. But everyone should be able to agree that we ought to be asking the questions. Without a CIA interrogation program that is lawful and classified, we’re dangerously out of the game.
Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) is the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade.